, 1887-08-07

saved my lie, without any fuss or obllga-
ton about it; bob, the tinker" whom
you could hear below his welcome of
Wei, Of chap, n. ye better n come
n, live wi hqs altogether" for a good
half mile; Pretty George" bright,
earnest, and the c%anniest horse trader in
America; Uncle job who is rich aud
%contented and looks on with lazy, unc-
tuOus satisfaction as the rest of the band
give token Of progress In dickering and
thrift; Jake, the cobbler." the biggest
knuckled man, and the quickest man
with a waxed-end you ever saw; odd
Hezzy," the only cd. old Gipsy bachelor
| ever heard of, very rich but very silent
ever, for his life is back there where the
Wharfe flows up by Ilkley in old England,
where half a century ago the Giysy rack.
he (sweetheart) he loved had been buried;
and big listed Dick" once a Yorkshire
blacksmith, like his more noted country
man, preacher Robert Collyer.
A GIANT IN STRENGTH AND STATURE,
but sturdy and true and tender hearted
beyond the telling. There were a half
dozen score of these rugged fellows; and
then there we're the keen, untiring old
spae-wives of the weird, olden, hunted
Gypsy stock, a little doubtful of any
Gorgio or non Gypsy friend, to whose
hearts | had repeatedly laid siege, and
from whom | had ever suffered inglorious
defeat, but who wIthal ever tolerate me
with hosDitable watchfulness; and the
strong, fine women of the band, full of
life and vigor, who would walk you a
twenty mile stretch and back again with
greater ease than you would walk from
your home to your Office; the Gypsy lasses,
glowing-eyed, frank, full of merry d.
ablery, but self possessed wholly; the
children in whom a thousand boisterous
welcomes were, for they knew that some.
where about my luggage were various
packages of sweetmeats which would in
good time appear; and then the long,
lank, lean, wolfish dogs, voiceless but
v%igilant, and full of tremendous tail
wagging pretense OF old acquaintance,
which was surely better than no greeting
at all. All these are my friends; and as
they made a greater and a joilier ado over
me than | ever got, or expect, from other
folk, as they conducted me to the snug
tent of Bob, the tinker, whose camp mate
L was to be, | confess to the possession
then and there of a longing that the greed
and grind of life might be exchanged for
the heartiness and insigniticance, if you
please, of this.
A HOME-LOVlN0 PEOPLE.
Set it down as true that wherever the
Gypsy man, woman, youth or child may
be, and the rest of those who are loved
also tarry, there is the home. That may
be anywhere on this broad earth. With
the Gypsy, the home is wherever the
heart is, sure enough. Right there,
whether in dingy winter quarters in the
city, on the road for a thousand-mile
tiresome march, or in the camp, be it
barren or drearY, or sweet and winsome
like this one, all that, after all, really
makes any home under the skies is right
in that spot, And why2 Because of
love, trust, fidelity, content. All your
civilization and progress, and culture,
have never made that primal requisite to
%virtuous and faithful lives wholly true of
any other race. Draw whatever inference
you may in support of any theoretical
social pcrsiflage, this indisputablo fact re-
mains. And another remarkable truth
about this people along the same line is,
that while they are without law and rule,
no people live who more vigorously OBJ
serve, in fact and to the ultimate of spirit,
the highest and purest code of physical
and moral observances.
THEIR HOME RELATIONS.
Gipsies universally revere the marriage
and home relations. What other people
do? | say universal, and use that word
unqualifedly. There is not an excep.
ton. The home, under dingy roof or
beneath the stars, is. the dream, the type,
the realization of all attainable good. l
do not defend them in their religious in
fidelity; but the religious faculty as we
know it, develop it, distort it, is so lacking
In than that onnthar gaapnC fn u orra 20 on
its place. That is home worship. Without
ambition to rule and rend and remodel
the world, their whole mental and heart
power concentrates upon and about their
own. Every earthly effort of the Gypsy
man, as of every decent man, is for the
home, the concrete shrine within his sim
pie holding. The Gypsy wife, not being
civilized into a social harridan. not being
developed into a literary, art or church
g%adabout; not being cultured into a female
devil. fish.
REACHING HER GREEDY TENTACLEs
to every outlying slime and then devour-
ing her own home for self and social dis
devotion for those who call her wife and
mother. And SO this Gypsy family that
you scorn and my old poet-friend calls
'~'rascals, y form an all sufficient, %invinci-
BILE love force that the combined assaults
OF i'll fortune can never shock or endan-
ger. That is surely one thing worth re-
memborlng about the Gipsies. Yet all
this Is true without law. And it even
begins back of the sucking of the babe
at the Gypsy mothers breast. It's bred
and inbred in prenatal assimilated loyalty.
Then as the children come along with the
years, they absolutely know nothing else
or different, save about the Gorgios or
nom ipsies, among whom they see all
that should be avoided, and of whom we
know a few things that should be changed.
STRICT SOCIAL CUSTOMS.
Along with unconscious native ethical
healthtulness, ZONES such physical care as
we advanced people know nothing of.
Because the Gypsy mother and father are
themselves perfect types OF good health,
healthy children are born to them. Because
every Gypsy woman on earth is true to
her mate, many children are born to them.
Because the instinct of fatherhood,